Car Hire Kuwait

Mini guide to Kuwait

The geographical location of Kuwait makes it a prototypical oil state, and travellers looking for a relaxed entry into the Muslim world can expect their share of mosques, souks and other sandy traces of bygone Bedouin days.

The State of Kuwait lies at the north-west extremity of the Arabian Gulf. The name Kuwait, is the diminutive of the Arabic word "Al-Kout" which means a house built in the form of a fortress adjacent to water.

From the days when Iraqi troops were driven out in early 1991, Kuwait has rebounded to its former grandeur while still being an easygoing place. Though the war with Iraq has become a footnote, it hasn’t come without a price. The National Museum, once the pride of Kuwait and its centrepiece, used to house the Al-Sabah collection, one of the most important collections of Islamic art in the world. That was until the Iraqis systematically looted the exhibit halls. Therefore the Tareq Rajab Museum, a private collection of Islamic art housed in the basement of a large villa, has become the unofficial ‘must’ see museum.

Designed by a Swedish architectural firm and opened in 1979, the Kuwait Towers are Kuwait's main landmark, with the largest of the three rising to whopping height of 187m. The largest tower's lower globe has a restaurant, coffee shop and banquet rooms . The upper globe houses a two-level observation deck, which overlooks the Emir's Sief Palace.

The country’s most impressive Muslim monument is the huge, modern Grand Mosque, opened in 1986, which can accommodate over 5500 worshippers.

Al-Jahra, 32kms west of Kuwait City, is where invading troops from Saudi Arabia were defeated in 1920. The town's landmark is a Red Fort, a low rectangular mud structure near the highway, that played a key role in the 1920 battle. For Gulf War nostalgia, Al-Jahra is also the site of the Gulf War's infamous 'turkey shoot' - the Allied destruction of a stalled Iraqi convoy as it attempted to retreat from Kuwait.

Kuwait International Airport is 16kms south of Kuwait City. Buses operate between Kuwait and Cairo via Aqaba in Jordan and Nuweiba in Egypt. There are also international bus services to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.